Effect of experimental top soil removal on vegetation of Pannonian salt steppes

Abstract

Inland saline habitats of the Pannonian Lowland exhibit a specific variety of grasslands determined by a soil salinity gradient. Changes in the hydrological regime and absence of management have resulted in heavy degradation of the vegetation. The impact of topsoil removal on salt steppes was tested by a 3-year small-scale manipulated experiment in SW Slovakia (Kamenínske Slanisko Nature Reserve). Topsoil was removed in three contrasting types of vegetation with different soil salinities, i.e. in different stages of habitat degradation. Data were analysed by multi-way ANOVA and by multivariate methods. Species richness decreased and the proportion of halophytes increased significantly in the two types with the highest soil salinity; however, the total number of halophytes was not influenced by soil removal. The treatment caused inhibition of secondary succession on the plots with the highest salinity. The effect of the soil removal was only short-term in the vegetation with moderate salinity and on heavily degraded and desalinized types it even stimulated further recruitment of ruderal species. Topsoil removal has only limited potential for the restoration of Pannonian salt steppes. It should be applied only in slightly degraded vegetation, where salt accumulation is still present and target species propagules are available.

Halophytic Vegetation in the Pannonian Basin: Origin, Syntaxonomy, Threat, and Conservation

“…Furthermore, abandoned fields on salt-affected soils have been successful conversed to seminatural stands by using low diversity seed mixtures of local provenance (Šefferová-Stanová et al 2008). Surface disruption experiments have also been tested in Slovakia, but only surviving of competitively weak species (Camphorosma annua, Crypsis aculeata, Heleochloa schoenoides) have supported, while communities have failed to recover (Melečková et al 2013). Although the recovery of salt steppes and marshes is costly and long-term, positive results indicate that this pathway for the management of degraded salt habitats can help to preserve them for a future.…”

Impact of Water Level on Species Quantity and Composition Grown from the Soil Seed Bank of the Inland Salt Marsh: An Ex-Situ Experiment

“…However, restoration is still possible where degradation is not too severe; it can be accomplished through hydrological regime change [30,31] influenced by micro-relief [32] and utilizing extant seed banks in remnant patches or remaining degraded wetlands [33,34]. One documented restoration method that is often employed over large areas uses the extant seed bank by peeling away the top layer of turf that has developed [34][35][36]. By removing the upper layer of soil [37], the restoration of halophytic plant species is enhanced and further augmented by the grazing of livestock or seed sowing of desired species [38].…”